Skip to main content

Cathartic Complexity

It's one of those days when I want layers of music to accompany my writing.  I currently have Dave Brubeck on in the back-ground (Time Out), and Cliburn via Grooveshark on my laptop, with Ballad in Blue (featuring Ray Charles) via the tv in another room!

Somehow, all this "layering" has a calming effect.  It's as if I have several musical and emotional needs, and in having them all anchored, (even if some more so than others), in these various degrees on listening, my mind is freed to concentrate on my thoughts.

Catering to this way of "anchoring" through means that others might find distracting, I find there is also a purging component.  It's almost as if the music is a tap for my musical-desires.  Without finding some expression, there is too much pressure w/in, making it difficult to do anything.  So, allowing part of my mind/heart "express itself" through passive listening to multiple sources, it's as though I've turned on several "taps" that release my inner tension, thus relieving enough mental pressure to concentrate on my chosen focus.

I wonder if that makes sense to anyone else.  I imagine many musicians would understand this, and maybe other artists as well.  Whether or no, it works for me!  I'm having a very productive morning!


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Together We Sing: Here I Am, Lord!

I love playing for Mass because I love offering myself to the Lord through music (which is an avenue of great, deep, and beautiful intimacy), AND because I love to, at least in some small way, aid others in their worship, in their hearts and minds, and all of us together as Christ's Body, Christ's Bride. One of my favorite experiences in accompanying the Cantor when singing the Psalms is when I hear the congregation respond w/ one voice, one healthy and whole voice.  By "healthy and whole" I don't mean that we don't have our troubles, but that I can hear in the people's voice together an authentic giving of the Self to the Lord.  I can hear individual voices and I can hear the blending of the voices.  I can hear each singer choosing to lift their voice to the Lord.  And when we're at our best, it seems to me to also convey our willingness to do this meeting-the-Lord WITH each other.  Too often I hear critics of Catholic liturgy bemoaning the fact th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sacred-Self and Beloved-Other

Just as I believe in the Sacred-Self, I also believe in the Beloved-Other (the "I-Thou" relationship).  I don't think it's necessary to eliminate "otherizing" people we perceive as different from ourselves.  I believe seeing the other as "other" is fine.  If you have embraced your own Sacred-Self, (i.e. if you have been Loved and know that your are Loved, you are a Beloved), then it is within your self-concept to perceive the other as the Beloved Other.  Now, I know the "if" in "if you have been Loved" is a huge if!  It sometimes seems fewer and fewer people in this world are experiencing unconditional Love in their formative years.  So maybe fewer and fewer people know the Love I'm talking about.  So many people today are trying to re-invent the wheel of Love.  Some who know Love think we need new ideas or teaching about Love.  I don't think we need a newly constructed idea of Love or empathy or tolerance; what we ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Goodness of Being

Today I am overwhelmed with a feeling and sense of melancholy, even though a very conscious part of me is easily happy.  Some inner thread feels wearily weighed down (but refusing to break) with the weight of a grieving world.  I so often think of the pre-born babies who have been martyred for existing.  When they are annihilated in their mommy's wombs, someone is trying to say "thou shalt not be," or "the world is better if you don't exist."  Could there be anything more untrue?  Existence is Good.  To Be is the first hallmark of God.  We are most Godly when we are most purely and trustingly Being.  I grieve for these sweet little ones who God loved into existence, even if no-one else would love them.  But I rejoice that they are in Heaven w/ the Lord.  They do exist.  That they do not exist just because they have been martyred is the biggest lie.  It is the supreme arrogance to say what or who is not.  God says "let the...
Post a Comment
Read more